Our Camping Trip

It’s a new day, a Thursday and we slept in our own beds last night and ate our evening meal in the living room watching a movie together. It was late when we finally went to bed. I didn’t clean the dishes but left them on the counter. There weren’t many, it was one of those kind of meals. We were both exhausted from a lot of extra work. Wednesday morning I got up at my usual time and sat at my keyboard, after a time of prayer and typed my morning pages out. Then I worked on my book for my usual amount of time and dealt with messages on my computer. Then I went to let the chickens out. I did my yoga and walked, put laundry in the washer and began to gather all the items we would need for a camping trip because yesterday was to be our camping trip. Our last one for the year. I had made a list and was going down the list crossing things off. I watered the herb planters on the deck and hung the clothes out to dry. It was a warm sunny day with a little breeze. Perfect for the plans. When all was ready I took a shower and Mark packed it all into the truck along with an adequate supply of firewood. We pulled out and headed for the lake. On the way we stopped at the gas station and the grocery store for only a few needed things. The drive was beautiful. We picked our favorite spot, making sure that it was not reserved. We made coffee and set up our table and Mark made a fire and we set up the tent. It was the first time we had a separate air mattress for Chloe. Shelby wanted to start sleeping in the tent right away. She loves camping and sleeping in the tent. We had everything pretty much set up and I was getting ready to make up the beds when I noticed a camper passing us for the second time. He had stopped the first time but had pulled away and now he was back, stopping again. They were in this big white truck with a huge camping trailer attached to it. They looked like serious people. Youngish. I thought, “This is not good.” “I think they want our spot” I said to Mark. Sure enough the guy got out of the big white truck and was walking over to us, he had a paper in his hand. I got out of the tent and stood there while Mark talked to the dude. The dude says he reserved this spot and he’s sorry there is no sticker on the pole but he needs to get set up and this is his spot. He showed Mark the paper and waved it around. We look around and wonder if he will think of a way we could carry on with what we are doing and not have to tear up our camp so that they could have their camp. I asked if they could camp in the next spot for the night. He said it was a lot of work to move that huge camper. We knew what was going to happen. Mark said he’s not going to set the tent up again. I said we already burned some of our wood. But we knew. The dude got back in his truck and they sat in it waiting. Well it takes time to break camp even if you haven’t actually camped in it yet. Well Chloe did have a sandwich and a glass of milk, if that counts as camping. We set about tearing down our campsite which we had taken all day getting ready for. We worked hard even though we were ready to sit and enjoy the campfire. We put everything back into the truck. Every piece of wood except the burned ones and we came home. On the way home it was quiet. I tried to find the silver lining. I said that I didn’t know exactly what it was but it’s there. You just have to look for it. Chloe said she felt like crying but she wasn’t because, lucky for us, she isn’t a crybaby. Dad said he was beyond a little disturbed by it. So we sat there each dealing with our disappointment differently. I said that maybe something was going to happen at the camp grounds that God didn’t want us there for it. I also noted that we had managed to set up camp and get through the whole thing without upsetting each other and that was an A+ I would say. Perhaps the whole thing was a big fat test. We also got an A+ for handling the whole exhausting disappointment with dignity. At home we got everything put away and had hamburgers instead of hot dogs. We watched Cats & Dogs. It’s a movie. But while we were getting ready to eat my son called. I love hearing his voice. He needed to let some steam off because his day had been very difficult and when he is having trouble, no one better and more comforting to talk to than mamma. I’m so glad I was here for him and that I didn’t miss his voice and that he didn’t get an answering machine on his very bad day. Perhaps God knew that I needed to be here for him and was caring for my son by letting us get kicked off our campsite. So there really is a silver lining although I’m not really broadcasting it around here because it was a lot of work yesterday.